Scientists make radioactivity-free vodka from Chernobyl

A steady stream of thrill-seekers have been drawn to the scene of one of the worst civilian disasters in the nuclear age, and soon they may be offered a chance to bring home a souvenir in the form of a bottle of Atomik Chernobyl vodka.

A team of scientists from the U.K. and Ukraine just brewed the first bottle of artisanal spirits made of grain and water from Chernobyl's once-banned exclusion zone.

Though the 1,600-square-mile (4,200 square kilometers) zone surrounding the doomed nuclear plant was thought by some scientists to be uninhabitable for 20,000 years following the meltdown in April 1986, 33 years later, radioactivity both inside the former exclusion zone around the plant and in the rural areas around it has gone down to levels some scientists say is safe for humans.

"Atomik vodka is no more radioactive than any liquor on the market," Jim Smith, professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth, told ABC News.